Michigan Radio's Public Insight Journalist, Sarah Alvarez, has been collecting stories from some of the people who left. Alvarez spoke with Jennifer White, host of Michigan Radio's All Things Considered, about what's driving regional out-migration, and about how Midwestern exiles feel about making the Big Move.

Through the Public Insight Network, a database of sources, Alvarez heard from about 200 former Midwesterners living all over the country--and the world.

"We wanted to see if these people's stories matched up with conventional wisdom and statistics about why people left the region," says Alvarez.

Conventional wisdom says that people are driven out by the bad economy. But according to Alvarez, people also left because they were looking for a different lifestyle and, "the bad economy just pushed them out the door."

For those who want to come back to the Midwest, many lack the economic opportunity they need to justify the move. "Regardless of how connected people feel to the region, how much they miss it, and even how much they don't like where they've ended up, predicting when they will move back has everything to do with the economy," says Alvarez. "If we could predict when the economy will be strong enough to have a lot of jobs and opportunities to offer, then we could predict when people will start coming back to the region."